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Colossians 1:13–14
“[God] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Our doctrine of last things must take into account God’s eschatological goal, which is to see His blessed kingdom covering the earth (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:15–17; Hab. 2:14). In other words, biblical eschatology does not begin with the timing of the final events. Nevertheless, time is an important question, for the Bible does answer the question of “when” with respect to the last days, at least in part.
Scripture tells us that the coming of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit marked the beginning of the last days (Acts 2:14–36). Consequently, while God has been aiming at His eschatological goal from the point of creation, our now living in the last days means that this goal is in the process of taking its final shape. To put it another way, the new covenant church and its presence throughout the world are God’s last-days goal for creation.
Here our doctrine of last things (eschatology) has strong overlap with our doctrine of the church (ecclesiology). The visible new covenant church “is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (Westminster Confession of Faith 25.2). In the visible church, people willingly submit to King Jesus and enjoy righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
While the new covenant church is God’s eschatological goal for creation, it has not yet achieved its final form. Thus, some people in the visible church profess faith but do not actually possess faith. Moreover, the visible new covenant church in its various manifestations has also been called the church militant. This is because God has not chosen to bring the fullness of His last-days goal all at once but, with Christ having dealt the fatal blow to Satan’s kingdom at the cross, the new covenant church is engaged in a war against the remnants of the devil’s kingdom. Satan has lost the war, but his forces remain active to try to keep the blessed kingdom from spreading. Sometimes they even sneak into the visible church and must be purged. Thus, the church militant wears the armor of God to battle evil (Eph. 6:10–20). Louis Berkhof writes in his Systematic Theology that the church militant is “duty bound to carry on an incessant warfare against the hostile world in every form in which it reveals itself, whether in the Church or outside of it, and against all the spiritual forces of darkness.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The church militant engages in spiritual warfare by wielding the weapons of the Word of God and prayer (Eph. 6:17–18). To see the blessed kingdom of God expand and take ground from the enemy, we must know the Scriptures, proclaim the Scriptures, and pray for the kingdom to advance by the gospel.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 20:4
- Psalm 35:1
- Mark 9:14–29
- 1 Timothy 6:11–12
The bible in a year
- Daniel 1–2
- 1 John 2